Gigcast!

I just got done recording my very first podcast interview.

Check out Gigcast this friday (Halloween!) and listen to me mumble answers to questions regarding my comics, college and crappy part-time job!

Search for them on iTunes or check them out at http://gigcast.nightgig.com/

I really did have a fun time during the interview, I just wish I could've been more forthcoming with my answers. :P

New Job

Yes, I has one! For the past couple weeks, actually. I haven't written about it because...well, it's not very interesting. I copy medical charts and mail them to the billing center. Not very exciting, but not very hard either. The hospital I work at smells like my 8th grade science classroom.

One frustration is I feel sort of out of place in a place I'm supposed to be. My "office" is a small conference room, and if the hospital staff needs it for a conference, I can't work there that day. I have to take my charts to a different office. And they don't always warn me when they're going to be using the room.

But I do get paid for any driving I have to do while I'm working.

It's only part time, unfortunately. Once I get my schedule down, I may get a second job at an art store or something like that.

Computer Woes

I love my laptop dearly, but oh does it frustrate me sometimes.

It no longer works without its power cord. Not for more than ten minutes or so, anyway. And it doesn't warn me its battery is low, then go to sleep like it should. It shuts itself down. But whatever. I'm not all that likely to use it someplace where I can't plug it in anyway.

Now the button for the trackpad is messed up. Sometimes I press it and it does nothing. Other times I press it once and it double clicks. Which means simply selecting something is difficult. 

I'm praying for a cheap fix. I'm hoping one of the Apply Geniuses can just pop open the case and spray some canned air in there or something. I can't really afford a major repair right now.

Until then, I guess I'll just use the mini-mouse (heh) I have, making my laptop even less portable.

Foamy

Dear dish soap companies,

If your product labeled Dishwashing Liquid is not meant to be used in a dishwasher, please say so on the front of the bottle in LARGE, BOLD LETTERS. Also, please include the phrase, "Will cause dishwasher to explode with foam!" Hiding this warning on the back of the bottle buried in your paragraph-long "directions" does not help.

Thank you.

Intrauterine Device

Whatever happens in the upcoming election, Sarah Palin will not control my uterus! I have an IUD!

So it seems I've started a blog...

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while. Something separate from other blogging communities (like LiveJournal and MySpace,) my own little bubble where I can bitch about whatever I want. I've got a BA in creative writing (anyone else noticed how much I love saying that?) but I haven't done much writing. Maybe I'll post little bits of stories here. Also I've noticed in my perusal of Craigslist that many "writing jobs" are for companies who need people to blog about their products, and having a blog already in progress is a plus in getting the job.

Mostly though, right here and now, my reason for starting a blog is junkmail. My rage towards it has reached such a level, that I must write about it.

I don't think it's right to call it junkmail, really. Because the stuff that has me so livid isn't the stuff that actually comes through the mail, it's the stuff that idiots trying to promote their company come and leave on our front door. When did it become okay to walk onto someone's property and leave crap tucked into their screen door? It seems like it should be illegal to me. This isn't like when you park you car somewhere public, only to come back and find that someone's left a flyer on your windshield. That's annoying, but whatever. You leave your vehicle in a public place, something might happen to it. But my house, the house that my family bought and owns? If you're not a public official, you really don't have any business leaving crap on my door!

Yes, I have more to say about this than I probably should, but that's why it's on my own little blog, and not on LJ.

Maybe it bugs me so much because I've never lived in a place where this happened before. Of course it didn't happen at my last house-- we lived on top of a hill, fenced in by trees: NOBODY came to our house. But it didn't happen at any of the houses we lived at before then, either. This isn't my first time living in a regular neighborhood.

Also, it's starting to feel just a smidge hostile. As hostile as a mass-printed flyer can be, anyway. When we first moved in, we got a lot of business cards from landscaping and home renovation companies. "Let us help you fix up your house!" Okay, cool. No, but cool. We just moved in, and it's reasonable to think we might want some help fixing up the place. But it hasn't been a year since we moved in, and we've now started getting flyers from people who want to help us leave our house! I don't know how many people reading this also read the chronicles of The Jackass Who Wouldn't Give Us The Money For Our Old House, Thus Keeping Us Out Of Our New House, but we went through a lot of grief to get this place. We're not leaving this damn house. I suppose the crapass housing market is to blame. It just feels like we're being circled by sharks sometimes.

There's a new tactic I've noticed. Too lazy to get out of their cars and leave a flyer on our doorstep, some solicitors have started putting their ads in a ziploc baggie, weighing it down with something, and throwing it onto the lawn. This is bullshit. Now not only is there crap on our porch, but on our lawn and driveway too. Like our neighbors don't hate us enough for not keeping our front yard freaking perfect. And what do they use to weigh down the baggies? Sometimes it's candy. So...okay, now I've got some Tootsie Rolls. Sometimes though, it is rocks. Rocks! And not little ones either. If you hit one of these with a lawnmower, chances are you'd break a window, or some part of yourself, depending on where it flies.

So it comes down to this: people are driving by, throwing rocks...at our house. I don't care if it's in the same baggie as an ad for shrub trimming, it is still a rock, and it is still being thrown at my house. If anyone needs me, I'll be out in my front yard with a tennis racquet.

Thus ends my first blog entry. I don't know how often I'll update. It oughta be pretty regular until I find a job. If you check back, awesome. If you don't, I don't blame you, as I just spent 45 minutes ranting about flyers.